Tag Archives: book

Egypt’s sun god Ra was rising in the eastern sky to cast his vibrant rays on the white walls of Pharaoh Amenhotep III’s grand new house. A newborn, about to arrive at sunrise in Pharaoh’s Harem, would foretell of exceptional heavenly influences.

The mother, Princess Attah of Mitanni, was twelve summers old. Her diminutive frame carried the belly of a hippopotamus. Gaunt and exhausted from slow labor, her birthing was half a moon cycle early, the baby large.

Maja, Attah’s only slave, tried to comfort her princess with damp cloths and soothing words as Attah suffered strong and rapid thrusts. Maja overheard two women sitting on their cots watching her princess struggle.

“The foreigner slept with Pharaoh but once, and is bearing his child. Luck is with her. She hasn’t even learned to speak in Egyptian yet,” one said.

The other pregnant woman said, “I feel sorry for her. No one has brought effigies of Goddess Hathor to bring the sweet north wind, or God Bes to aid her in her childbearing. The tattoo artist is coming in two Ras to paint my breasts with pictures of God Bes so the magic will be with me when I give birth.”

Slave Maja was on her knees at Attah’s cot asking all the gods she had ever heard of not to let her mistress die in childbirth.

The Pamela Crane & Mark Fine Interview

Find out what secrets each author reveals in this author-to-author interview between Mark Fine, author of the romantic historical drama, The Zebra Affaire, and Pamela Crane, thriller writer of the best-selling The Admirer’s Secret.

Each an admirer of the other’s work, here are pictures of Pamela and Mark “presenting” each other’s respective novels:

A coin is flipped and Pamela agrees to be first questioned by Mark…

Mark: What inspired you to start writing your first novel, and what was your goal for it?

‘The Silkworm’ by J.K. Rowling a.k.a. Robert Galbraith, is a crime novel set in the modern day publishing world among an unsavory lot. When one of the most successful authors of all time effortlessly changes genre from her Harry Potter books, it is easy to envy her writing. In Silkworm, she delivers a classic hard-boiled British detective, Cormoran Strike, and a charming assistant Robin Ellacott, along with a cast of corruptible literary types. Continue reading →